@Angela Yan the process for a 2 unit building was about 4 months a few years ago. Having the building is really very helpful. It depends on the amount of work you need to do to the structure. It might take longer now because they have less inspectors, but the amount of work need is fairly reasonable. Go to the City, they have a step by step outline on what to do.

@Arlen Chou hey! I can always rely on you to come up with answers anything Oakland. I have asked so many RE agents and they were all clueless. If in theory this project is brand new with separate meters, intact plumbing, electrical boxes etc. still only 2 unit building, should the process be straight forward? I will check planning with the city and report back.

As I am doing my research in the Oakland market, a lot of the math is starting to look slim in terms of cash flow so I started to study properties that could possibly be renovated with condo conversion potentials as a value add opportunity.

@Angela Yan Agents in general will not know anything about this. if the building was built as 2 separate units, then the process should not be all that complicated... but that is all relative. If the building WAS a SFR at one point, then you might need to some serious investigative work to make sure all of the utilities and plumbing are cleanly partitioned. Many of these older building have electrical running all over the place and not cleanly to the correct meters for each unit. The biggest headache you might/will have is with fire/sound barriers. This gets a little more complicated, feel free to contact me offline about more details.

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